Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-09-30
Mistakes in Rearing Swine.

The best thinkers in the west are now
convinced that the swine in the great
corn district have been weakened in vital
lty by living too much on corn. There
are three leading evils to be avoided
corn, fat and inbreeding. Each of these
will reduce hogs or other animals in ply
steal force and vitality just in proportion
to the excess TO which they are carried in
their breeding and rearing. A hog may
be starving and almost bloodless although
fed all the corn it will eat. Surely far
mer must have often noticed how little
blood the fat hog had, and if he gave the
hogs chance how ravenOusly they would
devour raw vege ables and flesh of all
kinds. Sometimes the craving for this
kind of food Is so great that the sow, for
getting her maternal instlnc's will devour
her Dung, so crazy are they for nitrogen
Gus foods
Amy food which supplies the wants of
the system only in part, is, and must be.
an unnatural food. The animal functions
not fed or sustained must make such
lack of s7stenance felt. As a conse-
qucnce, the blood is wanting in albumen
aad bulk. The blood vessels are not fed,
and they in turn carry a weakened supply
of sustenance in the parts of the body
which they nOurish-and thus to every
part to the smallest and insignificant or
gan. The body can not be fed in all its
parts with d food so lacking as corn in
the elements required. A swine herder
in Illinois recently wrote me that his
hogs had begun to devOur each other, at
lacking the smallest. Two he rescued
before they were killed, but being obliged
to be away, his hogs finished up one of
their number. They had plenty of corn"
and he could not account for the canni-
balistic propensity.
| wrote him that his corn fed pigs were
STARRING for heterogeneous food, and that
he should go at once to a slaughter house
and get a wagon load of beef inwards.
and give them all they wanted, and then
feed them middlings and bran at least
half of the time. The same remedies
will cure other cases of hogs which have
turned hunters and animal eaters. They
never should DE allowed to reach such a
famished condition. 1t is an absolute
violation of sense and philosophy to rear
hogs on corn as an exclusive food. 1t
should never constitute more than half
OF their daily rations, and the balance
should be made up of foods Of charac-
ter calculated to make muscle, bone and
tissue. The fat-the corn parts really
of the least consequence. In cold wealth
er it has more consequence in the animal
economy, as 1t provides large amount of
heat. Where there is an exposure to the
cold, more corn may be fed, as more car
bon is required TO Withstand the cold. 1t
is always a wiser and more economical
plan to shut the cold out than to invite 1t
in. and then endeaVor to warm it, or
change it from cold to heat by burn
ing corn in the animals body. A
warm place for animals Is a better way.
Farmers are apt to forget that comfort
is telling factor in the rearing of ami
mails, and costs the least in proportion to
its consequence. Arrangements for the
comfort of animals may be made of
such a permanent character that the
average cost, from year to year, is reduc
ed to an insignificant amount. To pro-
vide for the comfort Of swine, to-wit,
warm and dry quarters, is the first thing
to be done. The farmer, where corn is
cheap, makes the mistake to make up
this lack with corn aud the result is weak
ness of body and d natural basis for
multitude of disorders. Such conditions
may not create or cause cholera, but they
| help it on wonderfully where the germs
are introduced into herd. 1t is fOrtu-
nate that this idea is taking hold of the
large hog breeders, and they are trying
to put more disease-resisting power into
their swine, or to rid themselves of SO
great liability of chances.